Chief fundraiser announces retirement

Vice president for development Inge Reichenbach has overseen a surge in donations. Photo by Yale University.

Vice President of Development Inge Reichenbach, who championed the University’s most recent fundraising drive to a record-breaking goal despite the worldwide economic recession, announced today that she will be retiring at the end of June.

Reichenbach, a native of Germany, came to Yale in 2005 following nine years in a similar role at Cornell University. During her tenure at the University, she launched and guided the five-year Yale Tomorrow fundraising campaign to its $3.88 billion total, surpassing its goal of $3.5 billion. In an interview Tuesday night, Reichenbach said the campaign’s conclusion was the natural time for her retirement.

“Her work during the last six and one-half years will have lasting benefits for every school and the entire University,” said University President Richard Levin in an email to senior administrators, major donors, the Corporation and other alumni groups.

When Reichenbach stepped down as Cornell’s vice president of alumni affairs and development in 1995, she left Ithaca, N.Y. having broken similar records at Cornell. At the time, Reichenbach’s departure from Cornell was widely viewed as a successful recruitment for Levin and a disappointment in Ithaca.

In her time at Yale, Levin said that Reichenbach had made a “profound contribution” in strengthening the development office by nurturing leadership and hiring talented staff.

Reichenbach expressed pride in the work that she and her staff had done over the course of the campaign, and she thanked those around her at Yale for her experience.

“I found the experience at Yale to be extremely interesting and rewarding. I have admired the academic strength of the university and faculty as well as what’s happening here in the sciences and other areas. It’s very exciting,” Reichenbach told the News. “For me personally, it’s been a real privilege to be a part of it and to help a little bit by raising money.”

Reichenbach said she plans to move back to Ithaca to work on international fundraising projects that she has not had time to focus on while at Yale.

Levin said Tuesday night that the search for Reichenbach’s replacement will be an international search, but he also said that he would not rule out promotion from within the Office of Development.